The present invention relates to wheel supports for trailers, and in particular, to a support having a single wheel and a swiveled mounting.
In lightweight trailers, such as might be pulled by small vehicles, it is desirable to reduce trailer weight and expense by using a swiveled single wheel as the trailer support. Problems have arisen with conventional single wheel trailers since there tends to be bouncing and swaying in the trailer as the trailer is drawn along the highway, and this movement is transmitted to the vehicle towing the trailer. One particular problem which has been noted is that, with the vehicle and trailer traveling around a curve, the trailer wheel may leave the ground surface upon hitting a bump or other obstruction in the road, returning to the ground surface at a somewhat different angle with respect to the trailer, thus producing considerable swaying. This problem is particularly noticeable in a trailer where the wheel is biased to occupy a plane extending longitudinally of the trailer, and thus tends to orient in this position on moving out of ground contour.
It is a general object of the present invention to provide for use in a small vehicle-towed trailer, a single wheel support which substantially overcomes above-noted problems known in the prior art.
Another object of the invention is to provide such a support which acts to reduce bouncing in the trailer during trailer travel.
Still another object of the invention is to provide such a support which is freely swivelable with respect to the trailer which it supports.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide such a support having a pair of suspension springs arranged in tandem, with each spring capable of providing adequate trailer suspension in case of breakage of the other.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the two springs are compressed and extended coiled springs disposed on opposite sides of a pivot means pivotally mounting upper extremeties of depending wheel-supporting arms.